Will the Economist dumb down for America?

Jon Friedman, a columnist for Marketwatch, frets in a piece titled "Are you smart enough to enjoy the Economist?" that the British newsweekly will have to dumb down its content in order to reach a wide U.S. audience. And he frames it, frankly, in an insulting way: While Time Warner’s HBO is a premium cable ...

Jon Friedman, a columnist for Marketwatch, frets in a piece titled "Are you smart enough to enjoy the Economist?" that the British newsweekly will have to dumb down its content in order to reach a wide U.S. audience. And he frames it, frankly, in an insulting way:

Jon Friedman, a columnist for Marketwatch, frets in a piece titled "Are you smart enough to enjoy the Economist?" that the British newsweekly will have to dumb down its content in order to reach a wide U.S. audience. And he frames it, frankly, in an insulting way:

While Time Warner’s HBO is a premium cable service purchased primarily by affluent subscribers, the Economist faces a different kind of limitation on its audience size. There are only so many Americans who are — to put it bluntly — smart enough to enjoy its articles. So much of the U.S. media focus on the celebrity culture and present news in bite-sized portions that the Economist’s content may be too meaty for a country that once celebrated a show called "Beavis and Butthead."

Clearly, Friedman has never read the British press.

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